Providing Artifact Lifespan and Relationship Representation

1. A computer-implemented method for displaying on a display of a computing device an artifact lifespan and relationship representation, said computer-implemented method comprising: displaying a plurality of graphic timelines of lifespans of corresponding artifacts, each with at least a lifetime start point, wherein positions of the graphic timelines relative to each other indicate chronological orders of the timelines relative to each other, wherein the timelines are displayed in a two-dimensional display area, wherein a first dimension thereof corresponds to time such that points on the timelines with a same position in the one dimension have a same time; displaying, with the graphic timelines, a plurality of graphic relationship representations representing relationships between corresponding pairs of artifacts, the graphic relationship representations graphically connecting corresponding pairs of graphic timelines; and providing a browser that performs the displaying, wherein said browser is capable of dynamically editing the displayed graphic timelines and the displayed graphic relationship representations.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the artifacts represented by the graphic timelines comprise text files pertaining to development of a software product.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein at least one graphic relationship representation represents a relationship between a source-code control system document and an interpersonal message.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 wherein the source-code control system document comprises a check-in document that includes information indicating a user that performed a source-code check-in and files affected by said check-in.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 wherein said interpersonal message comprises either a work item, an email message, or a check-in message.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein a graphic timeline has a start point and end point corresponding to a start date and an end date of the lifetime of an artifact, the start date and end date having been automatically obtained by analysis of the artifact.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 further comprising: providing a first reference date for the artifact when said start date is undefined; and providing a last reference date for said artifact when said end date is undefined.

8. Physical storage storing computer-readable instructions wherein the instructions when executed cause a computer system to perform a process comprising: automatically identifying lifespans of corresponding artifacts in a project development repository and identifying links between artifacts, where the lifespans and links are identified by analyzing content of the artifacts; displaying an interactive graphic representing artifacts as graphic timelines corresponding to the lifespans of the artifacts and representing the links as graphic links between the timelines, wherein the displaying is performed by a browser application, and wherein positions of the graphic timelines relative to each other indicate chronological orders of the graphics timelines relative to each other; and responding to user interaction with the interactive graphic via the browser application, wherein the responding comprises dynamically adding, removing or editing the displayed graphic timelines and the displayed graphic links of the interactive graphic.

9. The physical storage of claim 8 wherein at least one link further comprises: a link from a source-code control system that relates at least two artifacts, comprising: a check-in; a user that performed the check-in; and any files affected by said check-in; and at least one link from an interpersonal message related to said at least two artifacts.

10. The physical storage of claim 9 wherein said interpersonal message comprises either a work item, an email message, or a check-in message.

11. The physical storage of claim 8 wherein a timeline corresponding to the at least two artifacts comprises: a start date for said at least two artifacts; and an end date for said at least two artifacts.

12. The physical storage of claim 11 , the process further comprising: providing a default first reference date for said at least two artifacts when said start date of said at least two artifacts is undefined; and providing a default last reference date for said at least two artifacts when said end date of said at least two artifacts is undefined.

13. The physical storage of claim 8 , the process further comprising: panning said interactive graphic within a window responsive to the user interactions.

14. A method performed by a system comprising a processor and memory, the method comprising: accessing stored artifacts, each artifact comprising a digital document related to a subject, where each digital document is comprised of text related to the subject; performing automated analysis of the text of the digital documents to obtain lifetime information and link information, the lifetime information comprising information describing lifetimes of corresponding artifacts, the link information describing links between artifacts, the links having been discovered by automated analysis of the text of the digital documents to identify related digital documents, the lifetimes having been discovered by automated identification and analysis of date information in the digital documents; storing a graph data structure based on the link information, where links in the graph data structure correspond to the discovered links between artifacts, and where nodes of the graph correspond to the artifacts; storing a table comprised of the discovered lifetimes of the artifacts; based on the graph data structure and the table, generating and displaying a timeline graphic comprising chronologically arranged parallel line segments corresponding to the lifetimes of the artifacts, the timeline graphic also comprising graphic links connecting the line segments and corresponding to the discovered links between artifacts, wherein a graphic link between any two given line segments indicates the existence of a link between the artifacts corresponding to the line segments, the displaying performed in a browser that allows dynamic interactive editing of the timeline graphic.

15. A method according to claim 14 , further comprising receiving user inputted commands and in response revising the graph data structure or graphically navigating the timeline graphic.

16. A method according to claim 14 , wherein the artifacts comprise documents of a software product, emails having content about the software product, and source code files of the software product.

17. A method according to claim 14 , wherein the displaying comprises executing a browser that responds to user input to navigate the timeline graphic.

18. A method according to claim 14 , wherein, given a link between a given displayed timeline and an undisplayed timeline linked thereto, that link is represented by a graphic on the given timeline, the graphic not connecting the given displayed link and the undisplayed link.

19. A method according to claim 14 , further comprising receiving a user-inputted query, and including in the timeline graphic only line segments of artifacts that satisfy the query.

20. A method according to claim 19 , wherein the query comprises a date term, only line segments for artifacts having lifetimes that satisfy the date term are included in the timeline graphic.